


i am your future, i am your past

by deandratb



Series: Maybe In Another Life [7]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, briefly mentions hal's attempt to murder alice, just FYI
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16345232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deandratb/pseuds/deandratb
Summary: FP marks an occasion with Alice. Set during "Fortune and Men's Eyes," sometime after they not-at-all-conspicuously confront Betty and Jughead together.





	i am your future, i am your past

**Author's Note:**

> I don't care that this season will never have enough Falice for me. I am living for what we're getting.

“That was close yesterday,” Alice told FP. “Do you think they suspect anything?”

Her head was a comfortable weight on his shoulder, the two of them curled up together on his old couch.

“Who, Betty and Jughead? I doubt it. Seems they’ve been busy lately in hospital rooms and who knows where else.” FP ran his thumb over the back of her hand as he spoke.

“I swear, they’re going to get themselves killed. I wish there was some way to get through to them, but Betty won’t listen to me at all anymore. I try to help and she acts like I’m the one who can’t be trusted.”

“It’s a lot to handle,” FP replied. “The mind games from her own father, so much death...I know almost losing Jug was hard on her, on top of all that.”

“Yeah.” Alice sighed and snuggled in a little closer. “I remember being their age, worrying about you and your father. Watching the Serpents end up in jail or beaten half to death. Why does history seem so determined to repeat itself in this town?”

“Don’t know. But in our case, right about now--I can’t say I mind.”

“You have a point.”

FP kissed the top of her head and she shifted until she could hear his heartbeat. After everything that had happened, his trailer was the one place where Alice felt perfectly safe.

She was dealing with the trauma, all the lies that lay underneath her sham of a marriage, but nothing could make that house feel like home again. Even with her girls around her, even after more cleansing and healing rituals than she could count.

No, this was home. In stolen hours, behind closed doors, a secret they weren’t very good at keeping.

With FP, Alice finally felt like herself again.

“Shot of tequila for your thoughts?” He murmured, absently stroking her hair.

“You know I hate drinking alone.”

Stepping down as Serpent King had been hard on him, she thought. But it was a weight that he was happier without. Sober, relaxed, quicker to smile or laugh now...FP was still a Serpent, down to the bone--just like she was, despite her attempts to wash all that away--but retirement suited him.

“I was thinking about us,” she told him. “About how much better things are now, for us both.”

“It’s pretty strange, isn’t it?”

“It doesn’t feel quite right,” Alice agreed.

“Too easy. That’s the problem. Things are going smoothly, we’ve settled into a sort of routine...can’t tell you the last time I could say that.”

“We probably shouldn’t even say it now.”

“Yeah?”

“Bad luck.” She laughed and tilted her head back to look at him. “I’m kidding. Mostly. This happiness we’ve got now? It’s not luck. We earned it. I worked hard with Edgar and Polly and the others from the Farm to get better. And you have your Serpents, you’re advising them and finding meaning there.”

Alice hadn’t been this philosophical since they were teenagers, passing a joint around behind the school, effortlessly cool while she offered up her opinions.

She had an opinion on everything. Some things didn’t change.

 _Then again, some things did,_ FP thought as Alice kissed his jaw and settled back against him.

It felt too fragile to tell anyone about, given their history...especially adding in the terrible twists of fate that Riverdale liked to throw at them. But their cautious arrangement was more than worth it. He had never been happier.

“Should we get some food?”

“Why, are you hungry?” Alice grinned against his shirt. “Silly question, you’re always hungry.”

“It’s a Jones talent.”

“When we’re ready to break the news,” she said, sitting up and taking both his hands, “how about we get dinner at Pop’s?”

“You sure you don’t want our first official date to be, I don’t know, fancier than that?”

Table linens and classical music and romantic candlelight reminded her of the early years with Hal, when they were both still trying to make it work. When she was so determined to fit into his world, she forgot where she came from.

Alice breathed through the chill that raced down her spine. Thoughts of Hal insisted on turning into vivid flashbacks of his hands around her neck that night, that horrific cold stare of his as he told his story.

It wouldn’t stop haunting her, but she had learned how to cope.

FP squeezed her hands, bringing her back to the moment, and she offered him the most reassuring smile she could.

“I’m okay. Promise.”

“All right. Come here,” he said, pulling her in for a hug. He recognized the look on her face, even when she tried to hide it.

It had taken half the Serpents to physically stop him from going to the jail when he found out about Hal. About Alice trapped in that house with him, nearly letting her husband kill her in an attempt to save her daughter.

He wanted to put Hal Cooper in the ground for that. He still did.

But his gang needed him, and by the time he felt safe leaving Jughead alone, it was Alice he went to find instead.

She was doing okay now, most of the time. Didn’t really need him to look after her--though he would have. Alice was so strong, it took his breath away.

“So, Pop's,” he said, pressing his lips along the curve of her neck.

“I thought maybe.”

“If that’s where you want to go, I’m on board. You know I love a good orange freeze.”

“And I love you.”

Alice smiled as FP stopped halfway to kissing her, eyes wide.

“Say that again.”

“I love you, FP. I was waiting for the right moment, but standing in my foyer with our kids about to catch on any minute, it occurred to me there’ll never be a right moment. We’re past dramatic gestures at this point, don’t you think?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Some things call for marking the occasion,” he replied. “I was waiting too. But since you brought it up, there’s no harm in being a few days early.”

“For what, exactly?”

FP shifted back, reaching behind him. Then he held out a small blue box, and Alice’s hand fluttered to her lips. “FP, tell me you didn’t--”

“Just open it before you have a heart attack,” he told her with a grin.

There was no ring, thank god. She was in the middle of divorcing her serial killer of a husband, but that didn’t mean she was looking to replace him.

“It’s been a month since that first night when you came over,” FP said as Alice lifted the copper-colored necklace out of the box. “I figured, it’s not a heart or anything, so you can wear it if you want, without anyone being the wiser.”

He was right, it wasn’t a heart. It was two snakes, coiled together, artfully rendered into a delicate charm.

“It’s beautiful,” Alice said, letting the light catch it as it swayed.

“I love you too,” he told her, watching as she reached for his hand. “Happy anniversary, for whatever this is we’re doing.”

“You’re such a romantic,” she teased. “Here, would you?”

Alice turned over the hand she was holding and dropped the necklace into his palm. Then she lifted her hair up, away from her neck, and waited.

FP put it on for her, taking her hand again as she let her hair cover the clasp and beamed at him.

“It’s better than a heart, FP. It’s perfect. Happy anniversary to you, too. But I didn’t get you anything.”

“Come over next week,” he suggested, pulling her in for a kiss. “That’s all I want. Just keep coming back.”

She nodded. “That’s easy enough.”

“Nothing about you is easy, Alice. But I like you that way.”

“And you’re a troublemaker, FP Jones. But you’re my troublemaker.”

“A reformed troublemaker,” he argued.

“Sure.” Alice patted his cheek, smirking at the look he gave her. “Not so reformed that you wouldn’t defend my honor, that’s all I’m saying.”

“Well, yeah. But that’s not starting trouble--that’s finishing it. That doesn’t count.”

“It most certainly does.”

“No, it doesn’t.”

“Do you want pizza or not?”

“Nah, I’m not hungry anymore,” he said, shaking his head.

“It’s a miracle.”

Her dry tone made him laugh. “The only miracle is us ending up here, after everything. Come to bed, Alice. We’ve got a couple more hours ‘til you have to head home.”

“I suppose food can wait.” She tossed her hair back as she stood, FP’s eyes following the copper charm that settled against her chest. “You need a new bed, FP.”

“Not this again.”

“That one has seen better days, that’s all I’m saying. What if we break it?”

“Then we’ll have a heck of a story to tell.”

“And probably splinters.”

“Still, no harm in trying,” he told her, grinning as he shut the door behind them.

“We’re not going to **try** to break your bed, don’t be ridiculous.”

“Hey, I’m not the one who used to do yoga, Alice. If anyone's dangerously enthusiastic...”

“Oh, be quiet.” She pulled her shirt over her head before he could say another word.

They never made it back out for the pizza.

**Author's Note:**

> Title borrowed from "Take On The World" by You Me At Six.


End file.
